Leicester police designate office hours for public

A sign directing people for emergencies and appointments stands outside the Leicester Police Department.

LEICESTER — Because of a diminished workforce and budget constraints, the Police Department is now only open for several hours on weekdays for public business.

According to the signboard that greets anyone approaching the front door, those with emergencies and appointments should buzz the outside intercom.

For all other business, visitors are to come back during the office hours of 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday.

"We had eight part-time officers that were laid off and we had an officer retire in January, almost a year ago, and we haven't been able to fill that position, so we are down all those positions," Chief Police Chief James J. Hurley explained. "So, in order for us to be able to accomplish keeping officers out on the street and not having them come back and forth for the reports that come into the lobby, we have implemented the office hours for when they can come in. There is an officer here (in the station). He can do reports for them and we are dispatching at homes, instead of meeting people here."

Five years ago, Chief Hurley said, the Police Department had 18 full-time and eight part-time police officers. Currently, the force has 17 full-time and no part-time police officers.

"Essentially, over the past four to five years, I had to maintain the Police Department, the services, all of that with either a reduced or level funded budget. And, during that time, people have gotten pay raises. The cost of everything has gone up."

Town Administrator Kevin J. Mizikar said the overall budget in Leicester has been basically at the same level for all municipal departments for the last several years, simply because the town continues to experience declining revenues. In addition, longtime Selectman Douglas A. Belanger said, all department heads have been told to deliver first a budget at the current level, and then make a case for added costs.

"All our municipal departments have either given up raises or taken reductions in previous negotiated raises in order to try help lessen the reduction," Mr. Belanger said. "But, ultimately, these increases in a level-funded budget means something is getting reduced. After five years of that, we have hit the wall. And you can see the effect with less hours in the lobby and plenty of other things."

The Police Department's operating budget for the current fiscal year is $1,701,172, which is essentially the same budget it had five years ago, Chief Hurley said.

Of that, $1,456,781 goes toward wages, salaries and benefits and $274,391 for the department's operating expenses.

"At the current time, we cannot afford to pay for everything. So I asked the public, tell me what you would like? Do you want the police officers on the street or do you want the lobby open?" Chief Hurley said. "I'm a very firm believer that the best defensive mode against criminal activity is having the cruiser seen on patrol, especially in the neighborhood, and having a fairly active traffic enforcement program. If the housebreakers or the drug dealers think they are going to be driving through us and are going to get stopped, whether it be for a bad inspection sticker or taillight out or for speeding, they are going to do their stuff elsewhere."

As for the reduced lobby hours, Mr. Mizikar agrees with the police chief that it's the situation that Leicester has been forced into. And the reduced lobby hours enable the town to keep its police resources out in the community, rather than at the station handling complaints.

In addition to reduced lobby hours, Mr. Mizikar said, the town is looking into joining Worcester in a regional police dispatching center, with Leicester's four full-time dispatchers being offered jobs at the regional center, subject to passing the requisite exams.

"It roughly costs us $250,000 to run our dispatch center right now," Mr. Mizikar said. "But there will be costs that we incur in other ways, ?from watching prisoners and other things that dispatchers do, that we will have to backfill. It's not a net savings of the total costs that we are spending now."

At the special town meeting in October, the town authorized an additional $30,000 in the Police Department budget to fill the full-time police officer vacancy, beginning about Feb. 1. Once the new police officer is street ready, Chief Hurley said, he will re-evaluate to see if police can reopen the lobby.

While the lobby might be closed, Chief Hurley stressed that many police services can be done online, including filing reports and permits and getting the appropriate forms, which can be mailed or dropped off at the station. However, people having an emergency are buzzed right in and helped, he said.

"It doesn't mean the building is empty. When you come in there are still officers coming and going. There is a dispatcher still in here right now," Chief Hurley said.

"Our particular problem is the lobby traffic is so heavy here, filing forms and things like, that we have to schedule firearm licenses and permits now. It's no longer the walk-in system and the problem is when you keep bringing officers on and off the street, they lose their visibility out there, then they are tied up in here on a report."